Kelly Hu, the beauty queen turn butt-kicking babe, stretches her acting talent with two new gritty film roles and a comedy TV series.
Kelly Hu is going nowhere.
She's stuck on the 405, Los Angeles's most clogged artery in the freeway system, on her way to meet with her acting coach with no one but the Pacific Citizen to keep her company. Over the phone, Hu's voice crackles with intensity as car horns bleat in the background.
That's L.A. for you - its promise of fast fame lures in countless of dreamers like the former Miss Teen USA, who moved here from Hawaii when she was 18, fresh out of high school and bursting with dreams.
"When people are young they have humungous dreams," said Hu. "I had a timeline for myself to land a TV series in five months."
Fast-forward to the present, Hu is now 39 with an extensive filmography (search "Kelly Hu" on www.imdb.com), two new movies showing at the upcoming San Francisco International Asian American Film Festival and a starring role on an ABC primetime comedy series.
Hu's career - unlike the 405 - is moving fast and there are perks that go with a skyrocketing career.
"Now I get to go to gifting suites!" she said, laughing. "It's the little things."
She's Comes Undone
In "Shanghai Kiss," Hu is in peak femme fatale form as Micki Yang, a sophisticated lady from Shanghai who beguiles American-born Liam Liu (Ken Leung). For the first time, the Hawaii native had to play a non-Asian Pacific American character. To perfect her accent, she studied the inflection of other Asian artists like Bai Ling and Joan Chen. In the film, Hu bristles incredulously to Leung's American arrogance: "But you are Chinese!"
"Everyone can relate to at some point in their life feeling like they don't fit in," said Hu, who is of Chinese, Hawaiian and English ancestry.
She departs from her usual glamorous image in "Undoing," a gritty neo-noir film where she plays Vera, a wilting waitress who's prone to trouble and emotional turmoil. In real life you would like Hu - a black belt in karate - to be in your corner over wispy Sung Kang, her onscreen boyfriend.
"Throw a few kicks and suddenly you're this martial arts queen!" said Hu. "I love to be known as a kick ass character. It really is who I am. I'm not just some actor pretending. I actually enjoy [martial arts]."
"I actually consider myself the laziest actor in Hollywood because I love life," she added. "There are some actors who live and breathe acting - all the more power to them - but I really enjoy life outside of acting."
Small Screen Valedictorian, Real Life Waitress
Lately, there hasn't been much time outside of work. Besides her two new films, she will invade your living room Wednesday nights in "In Case of Emergency," a television series about a group of twenty-something former high school classmates who still don't know what to do with their lives. Hu stretches her comedic talents as Kelly Lee, a high school valedictorian-turn-masseuse who is prone to going to work in a tiny bikini.
"I've never wanted a series to [be successful] more than this, because the people I'm working with I absolutely love," she said about the show's return Feb. 28, after unfairly being pitted against "American Idol," the current hands-down ratings winner.
With a cast of comedic veterans like Jonathan Silverman and David Arquette, Hu feels a little out of place.
"This is kind of new," she said about playing a comedic lead. "I try to do everything. I can't be that picky. I've always felt lucky. I never thought that I was better than the job. I'm just happy just to be working and to not have to wait tables on the side."
But then again there was that one time in her earlier days when she became a cocktail waitress in a trendy L.A. eatery - she only lasted a week, promptly leaving the job after she accidentally spilled a strawberry drink on a producer's white cashmere top.
"I seriously cried about that!" she said laughing.
Hu's the Role Model?
In the APA community where mainstream media recognition is at a premium, gain a little fame and suddenly you're the spokesperson for the entire community.
It's a title Hu rebelled against for a long time partly because of her stint as Miss Teen USA when at 16, she was expected to speak intelligently about war, peace and everything in between.
"I wanted to be able to make my mistakes, say things without being judged. I say stupid things all the time!"
Now Hu is more comfortable in her role model status and uses her celebrity to support causes close to her heart like Reef Check Hawaii, an environmental organization that preserves the reef health of her native home. She also supports building schools in Botswana, and animal rights organizations because of her dog, the love of her life.
"He's a mutt like me," she said.
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